Character Design Behind the Scenes Sample!

Thank you for coming to this page! This is a sample of the behind the scenes artwork and thoughts that go into the characters of the Orange Crows world. I'll be updating and sharing these throughout the time that I am working on Orange Crows volume 2. Only those who pledge to the Orange Crows volume 2 Kickstarter project will be able to see these once the project has started.Remember, this project can only succeed if we meet or exceed the pledge goal! Remember you can pledge by going here: ORANGE CROWS VOLUME 2 KICKSTARTER.

I will be collecting the sketches and designs you see into the artbook. Creatures, characters, enviroments, etc. And the artbooks will have additional stuff that hasn't been posted. The artbook features both black and white sketches, and full color pieces. Remember the first print of the artbook is available in the pledge tiers on the kickstarter site. So if you are interested reserve a spot before they run out!

First off, I wanted to show you how I came to design this character. This is Whisper, or Whisp for short. She is a character that will appear in Volume 2 of Orange Crows. Due to certain reasons (no spoilers!) she is unable to talk. She carries a wind up record player with her, and is able to communicate with others by winding it up. When wound, a voice comes out. Depending on the record that's on, the voice changes.

First, I played around with a lot of sketches. I was trying to decide what kind of hair style and hat she would be wearing. And what her face should look like.

I've decided at this point that she is not able to speak on her own. What should she use to communicate? I was thinking a magic book, but talking books seem to be overused in fantasy worlds. After some debating, I decided on the wind up record player. I thought it would be a fun idea. I sketched out a few ideas of what it could look like.

I pull out some references and try to decide what her uniform should look like. She is a member of the S.W.S. (Special Witch and Warlock Squadron) and they all have a military styled uniform. Because she comes from a District (city) that is constantly cold, I started adding wool to her uniform design.

And finally, I have the basic uniform planned out, and I've decided on her hat and hairstyle.

Valentine's Day picture

First I drew out a few different thumbnail concepts for the picture. These are usually quick sketches that are a few inches large. Here I am trying to get an idea for the positioning of the character and the angle that I want to use.

This step is sometimes done in pencil, or I use a wacom tablet and pen on the pc. I draw out a larger sketch of the thumbnail that I picked. It's quick and rough so I can get the basic idea of the shape. I don't worry about details just yet.

Here I started doing clean lines but I realize that some proportions need to be adjusted. I make a new layer and use thick black lines to quickly draw on top of the picture and figure out what things I need to change to fix the character.

I decide that I want to use strong black shadows on this piece. At this stage, I make a new layer in the artwork and scribble on the black shadows in the places where I think they would go. I'm not too worried about keeping in the lines right now. Also it's at this point that I decide that I won't use a regular word bubble for the record player. So I try to add some lines around the bubble for a metallic or vibrating effect.

Now I go in and start using the eraser tool to define the shadows more and make them look nice. I turn the opacity down on the layer that has the black lines so it will be easier to see where the blacks are over my character lines. By turning the opacity down, the blacks look more grayish and are easier to adjust and work with.

Now that I have the black shadows put in, I start applying basic color to the piece.

And finally I apply shades. For this piece I used a tool called Easy Pain Tool Sai, so I used the watercolor tool to add in the gradients/shades. I used photoshop to apply the text. Well that's all for this character. Thanks for stopping by!!

Interested in seeing more samples? Click here and here to see some previous character designs that I've posted. If you like what you see please pledge a donation to ORANGE CROWS VOLUME 2 KICKSTARTER. Thanks for viewing!

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